An inmate at the Jackson County Jail hung himself in his cell Wednesday night.

The man was arrested by the Arcade Police Department on Wednesday Nov 12 and charged with open container violation, public drunk and theft by taking.

The man was transported to the Jackson County Jail at approx 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 12. He told the booking officer that he was going to harm himself and was placed in a segregation cell and placed on a 15-minute watch. At approx 9:25 p.m., the inmate was found hanging from a top bunk and pronounced dead at the county jail.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Georgia Bureau Of Investigation, is conducting an investigation into the death.

No wonder no one realized what happened. All the deputies do at the jail is talk about their personal life and brag about the last time they got "lucky". Every inmate that has ever been there can verify this. Not all locked up are scum. We do listen how you talk and also ignore us that try to get your attention only to be told to "shut up we are busy"

I agree the employees of the jail are responsible for this man's death but I must disagree with the assessment of the employees. I found the employees of the jail to be decent people. Perhaps it's the procedures that need to be reassessed.

Yes, I was an inmate, once recently on a false charge and once recently when they accidently filed a bench warrant for my arrest. It was a mistake that cost me a day of work, $145.00 towing charge and my freedom for a day.

The employees of the jail have procedures to follow. If the procedures were followed then the employees are innocent. If not, someone should lose their job and perhaps be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

We all have to take responsibility for doing our jobs properly and the Sheriff is responsible for having proper procedures and training so that employees follow these procedures.

what you people don't realize is that its your faught they can't watch suicidal inmates all the time like you want them to. you know why? no because you don't work in a jail. this is what happens, if anyone sees the special treatment a suicidal inmate receives (like being watched every second of every day which is the only thing that will satify you) then every person that comes in the jail will want this special treatment so they don't have contact with all the other inmates. and if that happens we would have to build jails the size of which you cant imagine. and then staff these jails. now here's the kicker, who going to pay for that? no one wants to pay more taxes and that's where the money would come from. so if you feel so strongly about this issue, get off your bithcing butts and go give the sheriff's office all the money you can so they can build more adult day care facilities. furthermore, if someone wants to commit suicide they and they alone are responsible for that act. don't blame anyone but the one who did it. assisting suicide is against the law in georgia, that did not happen here. so bottom line... shut up because i know your not going to willingly give the money it takes to baby sit the way you want and number two he killed himself, blame him.

here is a thought don't go to jail! and if you do treat the jailers with respect and they will do the job that they were hired to do ! if you were them and had to deal with all the crap that they do then you would become calloused just like them ! p.s. did you know that everytime a person is put in jail they automatically become experts on the law ! ive been there and heard all the stuff that folks yell at the jailers i kept my mouth shut and was processed and bailed out in a matter of 2-3 hours and expected to be there longer knowing that all the checks they have to do is time consuming

One must be assumed innocent before being proven guilty. That's the law.

Police choose their profession as well as jail guards. If one can not do his job properly without "becoming callous" then one should find another career. When a nurse works in the emergency room, he / she might get tired of certain frequent flyers like smokers and suicide attempters but callousness is not an option. Customer service is necessary in all professions.

We must all realize that a certain number of innocent people go through our criminal justice system. For that reason alone inmates should be treated with all of the respect possible under the circumstances.

As for rude inmates... The jailers have a tough job. I don't envy them and whatever they earn it's probably not enough.

it has nothing to do with being either guilty or innocent thats the judge's job! the jailers are to process you through the system!! and yes nurses and doctors become calloused because if not then blood, guts, dead, and dying would cause a panic in the e.r. the jackson county jail has no camera's in place its a very old jail so there are none in holding cells. the new one will be state of the art! ( our tax dollars at work lol! ) it is a shame that the inmate was able to commit suicide. but it is no one's fault all steps are taken to prevent such an act. but if anyone is determined then they will be able to go through with it. i'm sure the jailer did all they could to recusitate the man! lets not let a bad thing get worse by pointing the finger !

So you are saying that every inmate that mentions harming themsleves should be watched on a constant basis? The jail, and public safety in general, is already understaffed. Are you willing to pay the salary of the unknown number of new officers it would take to watch them, and if so those extra officers would have to be there 24/7 because someone can say they are going to kill themselves at anytime.

I MIGHT AS WELL,YOU JERK.I PAY THE SALARY FOR THE COUNTY TO SIT AROUND AND MEET WOMEN AND TALK IN DISCLOSED PLACES.I PAY THE GAS FOR THEM TO FLY UP AND DOWN THE ROAD WITH THE BLUE LIGHTS ON,GOING NOWEHERE.ARE YOU A FORMER DEPUTY OR ARE YOU THE ONE SITTING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD TALKING TO THEM?

Yes, to have a properly run jail yes, I am willing to pay more. No more unnecessary deaths. You see anonymous, it's not all about money, it's about being human and caring for others. If we're going to lose people over a few dollars what have we become?

I was eight months pregnant when I had to visit the jail in Jackson County to visit a friend who was, of course, unjustly arrested. I can attest to the SLOW working and SORRY attitudes of the men AND women working at the jail. The cop checking the visitors in was rude to several people there - all who were just there to visit someone. I've heard stories about the STEALING that some of the cops do when they process someone and "take" his/her wallet. Just like with everything else in this world - some cops are good and some are bad. Plain and simple.

You are right, the jail is a shack. The paint is chipping, stinks in there and ants like to take over... The jail has been the same for several years. Who is responsible for that? The SHERIFF!!! He has employees that have to work in those conditions every day while he moved down to the nice new CID building.The jailers work their butts off to take care of the inmates. When you have 5 jailers and over 100 inmates, how are they going to do everything they need to do? They have to process incoming inmates, feed and issue medication to inmates. They have to deal with inmate families, attorneys, probation and parole officers who come to see inmates. Get 30-50 inmates ready for court on court days..In addition they take all kinds of threats and harassment from the inmates themselves and the inmate's families. The list is so long of what these employees have to do it can't all be listed here. You can't even imagine. Most of these jailers have been doing this job for years and never get any respect from anyone. Not the inmates, not the Sheriff and not from the Major who comes in every morning and checks things out and sees what is going on and instead of trying to make things better for the jailers, just piles more on them. This is all in addition to making sure the staff get to eat their meals, (most of them don't get time to eat for the entire 12 hour shift) and stay safe. Can you honestly say that YOU can do any better?
You people that want to bad mouth the employees of the jail, should try walking in their shoes for a day. I'd be willing to bet that by 9 am, you would be gone...5 jailers responsible for over 100 inmates is not a very good ratio. The Sheriff will not hire anymore. Hell, the Sheriff hasn't been in the jail in years unless he showed up there the day the inmate died. He is the last person that knows what is going on in the jail. He only knows what Major Cochran wants him to know. Give the jailers a break. They are the last people that want an inmate to get hurt or die in their care.

There are a lot of varying opinions on this story. Let me assure anyone that will listen that to be a Jailor, if you are not made aware of anything else, you are made aware of inmate rights, one of which is to be kept alive. The last thing that "ANY" Jailor or Detention Officer wants is for "ANY" harm to come to "ANY" Inmate placed in their charge. Sometimes having a heart and trying to do something compassionate for an Inmate, like giving him a blanket or letting him or her keep their socks because it is cold can leave them the means to harm themselves. A truly determined person is difficult to predict or deter. Does that excuse the death of an inmate....no. But the loose shoot from the hip accusations of officer character are uncalled for. There are some truth's and untruth's in the posted comments. # 1 Cindy needs to get a life. Kevin you are right about don't go to jail, however, once there a person should be kept safe. And yes, being a Jailor is a tough job. All Jail employees try hard to make sure that these things don't happen, but the cold hard reality is that sometimes they will.

"Sometimes having a heart and trying to do something compassionate for an Inmate, like giving him a blanket or letting him or her keep their socks because it is cold can leave them the means to harm themselves."

What the heck are you talking about? I agree that the people of the community should not come down on the correctional officers. However, to say that they break the rules by giving inmates blankets and socks is absolutely crazy. I would sure hope they aren't doing this kind of stuff. Otherwise they would be to blame.

Somehow I think you missed my point, but it really doesn't matter. If people knew how many times the officers in a Detention Center are told by an Inmate that they want to hurt themselves they would fall out. There are procedures in place at "ALL" Detention Centers to deal with this. These procedures are not vague, and they are in writing. As I said earlier, a truly determined person is difficult to stop. When people make these threats they are usually not that determined, but merely seeking attention or trying to manipulate their way into a better situation while in jail. Unfortunately that does not appear to have been the case this time. I would hate to be one of the Officers in this ordeal, but again as things go in jail, despite your best efforts, once in a great while this "IS" going to happen.

I think you missed my point too, because I don't disagree with a thing that you said. We seem to have plenty of people riding their self righteous soap box all of a sudden, and I'd say about 90% have no clue what you're really talking about! Hind sight is pretty clear and it's easy to point fingers and make the call from a soft recliner. An investigation for such an incident is relentless, and the real story will come out, no matter what it is.

My daughter was at a party and she was arrested for supposedly trying to run to the woods to escape the cops. She had not been drinking (and was not charged for that), did not run (but was charged for evading a police officer). Totally bogus. One cop argued with the others over the charge and was overruled....they just want the ticket revenue.

When she went to jail all the male cops there at the moment gathered around her when one male cop asked her if her breast were real or not.....she's 17 for Christ's sake!!!! Yes they are real you jerks!!! I hope your daughters get the same respect if they get arrested.

When I bailed here out some cops seemed rude, some did not.....but none of them there at the moment could speak proper english. How do you get these jobs if you can't even communicate on an eight grade level?

The whole system is a sham! I could go on and on....fire ants in jail all over the place that come out at night when movement of humans stop, putting prisoners in a cell with bad guys or sickly guys so as to suffer, taunting, not providing enough heat or A/C, poor food or not enough food given as a penalty, etc....

you are right about these cops, there are known to treat women very badly, i was arrested a few years ago on bogus charges, it took almost to years to go to court, and i fought the bogus charges and won my case, what it cost me,#1 indignities,#2 money for Lawyer,#3 time lost from work, #4 embarrassment, #5 anxiety. with all the court fines and tax revenue, you would think that Jackson county and surrounding cities could find better officers to employ.

Jackson County jail personnel obviously don't know how to deal with inmates who have suicide on their minds, if someone tells you they want to hurt themselves would you give them something to do the job. I know socks are not the norm, but what is? You don't leave someone that threatens something as this inmate was supposed to ALONE!!!!! They were not doing their jobs.

yes jackson jail is rude people. the jailers are rude and mean people. the sheiff lets themget by because i have complain before. yes savage is rude also because i know him personally as a cousin. please lets vote a better sheiff next time and maybe it will be better

Let me begin by saying that I used to work for jcsd and I can tell you that each and every person that works in that jail works very hard at what they do. I have seen MANY times when the jailers in that jail have went without a break or even a meal all day. Each jailer that I have worked with treats each inmate with respect and dignity as if they were innocent. However, to continue to say that ALL the jailers treat inmates as criminals is a false statement. I challenge any person who says that they have been mistreated in that jail to make a formal complaint about the jailer(s) that mistreated them. There is video cameras in that jail and so if mistreatment has been done it would have been recorded. Until you have worked in that jail I do not feel that ANYONE has the right to criticize any person that works there. As with any job, there are people who are hard to get along with. As for Captain Savage, he took over that jail and has turned it around. Any complaint you have please feel free to go sit down with him and voice them to him. He is a very easy going, up standing guy and will take your concerns seriously.

I know for a fact the Sheriff has been lobbying for a new jail for years.

Someone who states they are going to hurt themselves should be taken to a psychiatric unit instead of an understaffed jail. There are no excuses for allowing a death of an inmate, period. This was preventable.

"Don't go to jail" is an immature response. Presumed innocent until found guilty by a jury of one's peers is the law of the land. This is not a prison but a jail to hold innocent people until bonded out or tried.

10.1 Jautry: Wow! You mean that the constitution of the United States is not valid? I don't think intelligent people are going to settle for less than our God-given rights. When an innocent person is placed in the custody of someone else, they then become responsible for that human life. There is no dream world here. This is reality. Punitive and actual damages secondary to a civil lawsuit will prevent this from happening again. (I pray) Explaining that there is not enough money to protect someone in custody is lame at best.

I'm not trying to insult you. You are very Idealistic, and I admire You for that in some ways. You are just not very realistic. No one should ever die in jail, I agree. No innocent person should ever go to jail, I also agree with that. But to say that a County Jail is a place for innocent people to be held until they bond out. You missed the bus on that one. You honestly want to imply that everyone that comes to Jail is innocent. I agree that it does happen sometimes, but the fact is that the vast majority of people that are in jail are there because they did something wrong. It amuses me that almost everyone that has been in the JCDC and posted comments in this section were unjustly taken to Jail or were there on bogus charges. The fact is that most people that are in Jail are there because they broke the law!
Now back to the original point. You are right, this person is dead, by their own hand, because someone did not manage to prevent it from happening. You think that when someone threatens to harm themselves they should be taken to a psyciatric unit. Anyone working in Law Enforcement can tell you how well that would work. The first time you did that every Inmate in the Jail would threaten to harm themselves. It is a game to them and all they have is time on their hands to figure out new ways to play it, so that threory is not realistic. That, however, does not take away from the responsability to follow the proceedures that are in place. A fifteen minute watch does not mean that you observe the Inmate for fifteen minutes, it means you put them in a secure place, physically check them at least every fifteen minutes, and document that. As I stated earlier, an investigation into matters like this will be relentless. It will not be a fun place, as well it shouldn't. The facts will come out, and believe it or not they will be truthful and correct.

Presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his peers. Yes, all arrested are innocent until this time and should be treated as such. A jail is not a prison. The man who committed suicide was an innocent person in the eyes of the law. If the resources are not there to protect a mentally ill prisoner then he should not be a prisoner. If we expect criminals to be held accountable then we have to do our part. The law is not a one way street. I've seen, with my own eyes, decent people incarcerated for the most trivial of offenses. Is there no other way? Must we continue with the same process they used in the dark ages? I agree violent, dangerous people should be removed from society as the rights of the masses outweight the rights of the individual but we should look at alternatives only for the non-violent. Jail should be safe for inmates, employees and whoever else goes there. Jail is not for punishment. Prison is for punishment. (but perhaps it should be for rehab too, i.e. job training etc.) A man getting out of prison to go to a decent job would probably have a better chance to be a better neighbor when he gets out. I would just like people to think about these things. By being kind to one another we can make a better community. It does us no good to hurt our neighbor when a better outcome could be had by having mercy. We all hate crime. But is jail and prison always the answer? And what are we creating when we do this to people? Would we feel safer around an inmate that just served 5 years in a small cell for a non-violent crime with no job training? (this is what scares me) He has no hope. I'm writing about a better way for us to live.

I want the jail to be a better place for all. I don't want jail employees punished. I want a better community.

For those of you that say the corrections officers are rude: Of course they are rude! They are supposed to be, it's a jail! If you have business there or if you end up as an inmate one day, just state to them what it is that you request and move on. There is no need for you to get your feelings hurt. They aren't there to create a personal relationship with you. They try to make it so you do not want to come back often.

By the way, what the heck does the personality of the corrections officers have a lick to do with this story anyway?

Who cares if you think they were rude to you!

Who cares if paint is chipping or peeling off?

It doesn't matter. What matters here is that someone is dead here that shouldn't be. He didn't die because someone was rude or paint was peeling.

He probably would have killed himself somewhere else if it wasn't at the jail. There responsibility is to make sure they do not kill themselves on their watch. It seems to me that the people at fault are the jail's leadership. Our sheriff is a failure.

Only the employees the night it happend knows exaclty
what happened & how. Leave it alone. If the man was dumb enough
to kill himslef, then u know what? He is where he wants to be.
Its no ones fault for what happened. No one is to blame.
If God allows you to die, then it was meant to be. It would not
happen any other way. I know a few employees there & I know
they have their flaws as well as their goods. The Sheriff needs
to be the one to handle his employees & everyone should
be evaluated in this situation & on a regular basis.

THE JAIL NEEDS TO IMPROVE & UPDATE WITH CAMREAS, PAINT, ETC.
BUT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITHTHE DEATH OF THIS MAN. HE DONE
WHAT HE DONE B/C HE WANTED TO DIE. THAT WAS HIS CHOICE & HE IS
THE ONE TO BLAME. NOT THE EMPLOYEES OR THE OTHER PEOPLE THERE.

i know the majority of the jailors on a personal level and most of them are very good people. yes they do have their bad days and get a little short tempered but who doesn't.my mother puts up with so much crap at her job that she is literally stressed out most of the time...but this isnt about the jailors or how hard working and under paid they are. this is about a man that decided death was a better choice for him than living. and if the jailors could have stopped him, he would have attempted again.

My problem with this is that I knew this person, he was a diabetic when did he last take his insulin, the police knew of his illness. There have been conflicting stories about this incendent, one guard said he was sleeping another satd he hung himself so how do we know if maybe he went into a diabetic coma, either way why did they not peform CPR on him are the deputies even trained to do something to help.

First of all the inmate was found hanging and was placed on an aed monitor and cpr was performed, yes the JAILERS not deputies know how to perform cpr. You should get your facts right before you start criticizing the sitituation. The man wanted to kill himself and also had tried to in the past so someone in that mental state is basically a lost cause anyway. But hey look on the brightside two good hard working jailers lost their careers and will never get to work in law enforcement again all because one man decided to kill himself. And also if the man was a diabetic like you state he was then what was he doing drinking and getting arrested for public drunk and open container?????? It's bad that someone lost their life but he chose to not anyone else, so what's even worse is that two law enforcement officers had to lose their careers over his mistake!

Just how do you know what was done, unless you were there because they haven't even told the family what was done to help. You must be ashamed to let people know who you are, by using anonymous. And NO I don't know the difference between a DEPUTY and a JAILER because I've never had to deal with either one, so you know alot more than I do. The two that got fired knew what kinda of pay and what type of working conditions were there when they took the job, so if conditions were that bad why didn't they get a job somewhere else, proably because they would have to follow the rules!

No offense Mabel, but without realizing it you hit on the biggest problem in most of the comments posted. Most people don't know the difference between a Jailor and a Deputy. They also do not know very much about anything else that happens in Law Enforcement, in or out of the Jail. I hope the readers of the JH realize this and don't draw conclusions or form opinions based on some of the things that have been posted here.

It is a tragedy for the jailers who lost their jobs. But I don't think, from what I read in the J.H. that they lost their jobs because they didn't check on the man every 15 minutes as required. Apparently they lied about it and the video tapes showed they lied about it. These are not the kind of people that should have other human beings in their care.

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